meaning of life

Self-Organization and the 'Meaning of Life'

In my writings on pantheism, I have often offered a short but
thought-provoking maxim - "the meaning of life is Life itself." In this
article, I hope to explore some of the reasoning behind such a vague
but intuitive statement, and the possible implications for a pantheist
worldview.

Can it be said that life has any meaning? In the most general
sense, most pantheists tend to believe that the answer is no. This
stems from the fact that pantheism tends not to accept any one
overarching purpose for life and existence in the fashion that
traditional theists do - we find it difficult to believe in any entity
which would be capable of imbuing such a universal purpose. If the
Universe is self-contained and self-creating, as science suggests that
it is, there can be no purpose-giver external to existence which could
grant to it singular meaning and purpose.

While this conclusion is logically sound, it is not necessarily
attractive to the human mind. Our evolution has left us with a mental
structure which seeks causes for effects, purposes for events, and
meanings for phenomena. It is simply our nature to seek out these
explanations, to give order to our experiences, and to make sense of it
all. If it is true that the Universe has no external purpose, where
does that leave the pantheist? He or she is as human as any other
member of our species, and the thirst for meaning will not disappear
simply because it is shown to be illogical or in vain.

This is the point at which one often experiences the
'existential crisis' - the awareness that life is without any
overarching purpose or meaning leads to a deep psychological confusion,
because the nature of reality does not mesh with the nature of everyday
experience. The existential crisis places one in the midst of a bizarre
and vague sort of anguish, for all of existence seems chaotic and
pointless. However, the crisis need not be unresolvable - many who
experience it pass through it fairly rapidly, arriving at a point
somewhere beyond the range of confusion and personal anguish. How does
this journey through they eye of the storm occur?

For the pantheist, the first key lies in the crucial tenet of
pantheism itself - 'the Universe is God, there is no God but the
Universe.' With this in mind, we realize that expecting any external
meaning or purpose to apply to the Universe is a false hope - not only
do the definitions of those terms preclude their application to a
self-contained whole such as the Universe, the very assumption that
they should be applicable to it denies the divinity of the Universe
itself. If purpose and meaning are expected to be imbued by something
outside that which is taken to be God, there must be something greater
than God (the Universe) capable of imbuing them. The pantheist
necessarily rejects such a conclusion.

The second key lies in this question:

"If the Universe is taken to be God, what then does God do?"

And in a single word, the answer to that question is "create."
The Universe, when reduced to its most fundamental level, is nothing
more than a singular, infinitely creative whole in constant flux. The
formless Creative Principle by which the Universe creates itself, and
the product of such creation, are collectively termed 'Nature.' By
viewing Nature as both the Creative Principle and the product of
creation, we see that the 'Nature of Nature' is infinite creativity.

Through what natural process is self-creation accomplished?
This question is of importance to the pantheist only because he or she
seeks naturalistic, rational explanations for phenomena. The pantheist
is not always interested in knowing exactly how something happens, but
she wants to at least be sure that it can happen, in accordance with
the laws of physics. Since it is assumed that a naturalistic framework
is sufficient to account for all aspects of existence, the
'supernatural' is generally held in little regard by the pantheist.
Because we will not settle for irrational dogma or simplistic
generalizations, we are left with a need to understand how things come
about. We want to know how, without violating any natural law, the
Universe is able to accomplish self-creation.

The answer lies in a term similar to, but more specific than,
self-creation. That term is 'self-organization' - the natural tendency
of energy to structure itself through ever-increasing levels of
complexity. We see this in Nature all around us every day, but it is
perhaps most enlightening to view it from a historical perspective.

At the instant of the Big Bang, the Universe was, according to
cutting edge physics, simply a homogeneously chaotic field of zero-mass
geometries. For reasons that can only be guessed at, the nature of this
field somehow caused it to become unstable and rupture, bringing into
existence a flood of energy and space-time. In the millenia following,
energy slowly became self-organized enough (through 'cooling') to
'congeal' into matter. Matter led to atoms, atoms to molecules,
molecules to gravitationally governed dissipative structures such as
stars and galaxies, and eventually to complex chemicals, organic
compounds, and finally to Life.

The chronology of this process is revealing. Obviously, stars,
galaxies, and complex compounds were not the pinnacle of
self-organization, because they were followed by even more complex
forms. To date, life is the most complex form of self-organization
known in the Universe. What is more, life exhibits a crucial
characteristic that sets it apart from other forms of self-organization
- the ability to self-replicate. This ability allows life to carry on
the process of self-organization at a highly accelerated rate, because
the dynamics of biological existence (natural selection and evolution)
ensure that organisms will be ideally adapted to their environments,
allowing them to survive and replicate with a high degree of success.

Furthermore, as self-aware organism, the human animal has
reached yet another discrete level of complexity. By mastering thought
- the ability to construct internal conceptual realities and act upon
the external world based upon them, we have extended our capacity to
act as agents of self-organization to exponential new levels. We can
consciously co-create with Nature, adapting our environment to
ourselves as easily as we adapt to our environment. Armed with our
thinking minds, we can re-shape entire worlds and impart
self-organization to everything we encounter, transforming environments
of low complexity to ones of high complexity on a grand scale. Readers
may wonder, "if we are the ones consciously doing the organizing, how
can it be seen as self-organization?" This is a common and valid
question, but it ignores another crucial tenet of pantheism - we are
integrated aspects of Nature, not separated from it. We are not only
conscious organizers unto ourselves, but more importantly, we are
agents by which self-organization may occur.

The sentient mind is the highest level of self-organization
known in the Universe. Because of this, it can be said that 'the
meaning of life is life itself' is especially true for humans. We
represent the cutting edge of the Universe's 15 billion year odyssey of
self-organization, so our existence is eminently self-justified within
a pantheistic framework. If this sounds like circular reasoning, it
must be remembered that linear reasoning can only be applied to
realities which include more than one discrete entity - a criteria that
the Universe taken as a whole does not meet.

It is worth noting at this point that 'the meaning of life is
life itself' is a statement that applies to all life, even the potential
life inherent to matter/energy. All aspects of the Universe are thus
sacred, and it is not our right as sentient beings to destroy or
mistreat that which our evolution has entrusted us with. Rather, it is
our responsibility to understand the process by which we came about, and
to recognize that such a process gives no specific mandate for
dominance to any one form of self-organization, even the highly
advanced sentient life form. It is not through design or purpose that
we find ourselves in this exalted position, but though the inherent
nature of matter/energy and its capacity to self-organize. Therefore,
we have no right to view ourselves as masters, but more appropriately,
we should view ourselves as keepers. Nature is the process by which the
Universe brought us into being, and our fellow creations of Nature
should be respected and prized as the vitally important links that they
are, links without which we could not exist.

In conclusion, it seems that the all-encompassing purpose and
meaning of the sort that so many people crave is not to be obtained -
but an internal meaning of a very profound sort does indeed exist, for
those who are willing to look to the 'Nature of Nature.' The meaning of
life is life itself - for there can be no other. Shouldn't it be
enough?